


Child of Bhaal

by Seika



Series: Titles [2]
Category: Baldur's Gate, Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Forgotten Realms
Genre: AD&D 2e, Amn, Gen, Id Fic, The Reconstitution of Amn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-23 16:58:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13194531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seika/pseuds/Seika
Summary: What to call a somewhat more traumatised Bhaalspawn?





	1. Chapter 1

1371 DR, The Year of the Unstrung Harp

 

“I’ll tell you again, Meisarch, and maybe you’ll understand this time. We’ve done bloody well so far, but we’ve done bloody well only given that you got knifed in the back and then kicked very solidly in the balls at the start. We aren’t strong enough, we aren’t secure enough, and there really aren’t enough _of us_ to go marching about wherever you want. This is going to be a slow and bloody hard campaign, and if you ever want the Council to rule Amn again, you will need some fucking _patience_. The De’Arnise troops are good, but we cannot fight all at once the monarchists, and the Tethyrans, and the Calishites, and the Sythillisians, and the Cyricists, and the _other_ hells-damned Cyricists, and every pissing duke, margrave, and city council that wants to go it alone.”

Callia De’Arnise stopped for breath, still glaring at the Meisarch, erstwhile leader of the Council of Six, and then quietly muttered “Common fucking sense, pillock.” The comment promptly earnt her an elbow in the ribs from her wife, just as the reddening Meisarch’s fury got the better of him.

“Listen, child -”

“Child? _Child?_ I was born to a fanatic who promptly tried to slaughter me in the name of her god! I was kidnapped by Harpers, then taken from place to place to place, rejected every pissing time. Eventually, my adopted father managed to get me into one of the most well-protected fortresses in the Realms, where I stayed for a few years, learning a proper trade to pay my way, until sodding assassins tried to cut my throat.

“Promptly, I left, and saw my father cut down in front of my eyes by a maniacally cackling warrior with eyes lit up like a fucking tanar’ri. I scraped and scrabbled through the wilderness to survive, more and more godscursed bounty hunters on me all the way.

“I _killed_. I killed gibberlings and xvarts. I killed bandits and wolves. I killed mercenaries and mages. I killed ogres and basilisks and doppelgangers, and then I killed my own damned brother, his blood racing with divine power in the Temple of Bhaal himself.

“I got kidnapped by a _very literally_ soulless madman, saw friends die before my eyes, and was tortured to the brink of insanity and back. There are scars all over my damn body, plenty of which you can see with your own eyes, and more of which are no-one’s business except mine and my wife’s, you decadent grub. Eventually, after a bit of a run-around, the fucker stole my soul. I want to repeat that for you, Meisarch. He _stole my soul_.

“But I got out, and I kept going. I kept bloody killing. I killed crazy druid cults. I killed hordes of trolls, including one infesting this very keep. I killed shadows in the darkness. I killed ancient necromancers of terrible power. I killed cruel and cunning rakshasa, I killed beholders blind and sighted, I killed colonies of illithid, and I razed a whole damn city of drow in the depths of the Underdark. I killed demons and devils and yugoloths. I killed a baker’s dozen fucking dragons, Meisarch, and eventually I killed the thief of my soul on the burning slopes of Gehenna itself.”

“And on it went, you see. ‘Chaos shall be sown from their passage’, so sayeth the wise Alaundo. Or, when the old bugger was feeling more direct, ‘I foresee that the Children of Bhaal shall kill each other in a bloody massacre’. And so armies marched, and cities burnt, and we spilt a river of tainted blood that shall not be cleansed from Tethyr or Calimshan for an eternity.

“I killed my sister, Illasera the Quick, mistress of the Black Reavers and the Hunter of the Five. I killed Yaga-Shura the Immortal and crushed his heart, and turned his army of fire giants to nothing but cold corpses in vengeance for Saradush. Her Majesty Zaranda was fool enough to send half Tethyr’s army after me, and because they made me kill all of them, you’re in this _happy_ position instead of all Amn being a vassal state of the Rhindauns already. I killed Sendai who was Many-In-One, the mistress of assassins, and sent another city’s worth of drow to the Demonweb Pits. I killed Abazigal the Blue in all his draconic power, and Draconis the Brown who was his son some-bloody-how, and Fll’Yissetat the Green who was their slave. I killed Balthazar the Kinslayer, and swore to him that Bhaal would perish as he wished.

“Inamidst, my own soul, for all that I’d just got it back, rose up to challenge me. I killed the spirits of vengeance; I killed the vile echoes of another time; I killed servants of Cyric far more powerful than these fools that are now plotting up in the Dark Redoubt; I killed the Ravager, the avatar of Murder that walked upon the Moonshaes and spread corruption and slaughter in its wake. And, Meisarch, I tell you something. The last fading scraps of childhood and innocence begged me to return to them, and I killed them too, because no child could do what now needed to be done, because no child would survive my battles for even a second, and perhaps just because there is now very little left in me except killing.

“That done, I drew back the veil from my domain. I marched over Khalas’ slopes, and I came to the Throne of Blood itself. And what else was I to do at my father’s seat but keep killing? The Shattered One and his sister returned, and I sent them back to the depths. Fallen solars, the match of gods, strung their bows, and I returned them to essence. Demons swarmed, and I felt nothing but contempt, because even the true tanar’ri, even balors and glabrezu, were nothing but insects I’d crushed a thousand times over by then. The Five were resurrected, and I undid their resurrection. And at last I buried my blade in Amelyssan’s black heart, and I became the rightful inheritor of a god’s power.

“And my final, glad, and wholly appropriate murder with divinity in my veins was to destroy my father’s hopes forever, annihilate his godhood, and become a mortal once more.

“And so, Meisarch, I swear to you: there is _nothing_ left of a child in me - nothing, except the abominably bloody life and legacy that says I am a true child of Murder.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (wow, CHARNAME, turn down the edge, pls)
> 
> hi this is SEIKA continuity which means i don’t give a rat’s arse about how anything canonically happened after 2e. objections noted and dismissed. (Some research later, I have found out that the Reconstitution never happened at all, which is bad and dumb, because that was some truly glorious chaos).
> 
> I also don’t give a rat’s arse about the novels despite the rest of my overbearing TSR involvement, but I think that’s a given for anyone writing BG fanfic.
> 
> Speaking of, the next chapter is purely me delightedly working out in the middle of things that the FR war I'd almost picked out of a hat to set this in was hugely to CHARNAME's advantage.
> 
> I have made [a long, long Tumblr post](http://thebleakcabal.tumblr.com/post/169087298432/) about the canon 2e background to this 'fic, which was barely even meant to be in the background. But if you want to see just how crazily complex 2e sometimes got, it's there for you. Also, if for some reason you really prefer to read things on Tumblr, the 'fic itself is also there for you.
> 
> ([Talk to me on Tumblr anyway](http://thebleakcabal.tumblr.com). It'd be cool).


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If none of this makes any sense whatsoever, I refer you to [this Tumblr post of mine](http://thebleakcabal.tumblr.com/post/169087298432/the-reconstitution-of-amn). At the least, you'll start being confused about a whole set of new and different things.

I chose to make Callia be in the De’Arnise keep just because that means you’re a fighter and probably are the best choice for a character who’ll be running an army and a war. Then, at some point I started getting  _ really _ into how a strong force holding the De’Arnise Keep actually has a ludicrous amount of power over Amn and does seriously screw over the whole Reconstitution. So now I’m talking about it here instead of letting it mess up the story. Can’t let the rant get any more out of hand than it already is.

The monarchists in Athkatla can’t move out because it’s threatening them right on their eastern doorstep, and there’s only the Cloud Peaks to their north and the Zehoarast marshes to their south. This neatly cuts them off from the rest of their intended realm and completely thwarts their intent of conquering the rest of north-western Amn and crowning Tanislove king in Esmeltaran as a new royal capital. Even better, you specifically sit right on top of both the River Road and Alendor itself, so there’s no access to Athkatla from the Trade Way, and you basically have the city under siege already, at least from the landward side. 

Moreover, you can strike east and actually take control of the Trade Way itself. This should be difficult in theory with limited troops, but is actually a very practicable job. The Krimmevols are the primary house in Crimnor, but are going to be seriously distracted by their efforts to create an independent dukedom in Cortryn, far to the east. Meanwhile, the Ophals are their rivals within the city, and importantly are rivals who caught wind of the monarchist plot early, and are said to object to it (understandably, given that it empowers the Krimnevols by conceding said dukedom). Between your insiders and Crimnor’s crumbling walls, you’re well-placed to take the Caravan City and control a vast part of Amn’s trade and financial lifeblood. (And, as this is Amn, that’s considered the nation’s lifeblood full stop).

If you do that, you’re also cutting the northern part of Argrim’s Cyricist sect off from basically all Amn below the Cloud Peaks too, so they can’t march anyone out of the Mountain of Skulls.

As long as you’re backed up by a decent force, like a victorious Bhaalspawn, her archmage wife, and all their treasures and allies, plus everything even a dispossessed Council of  … Two (?) can muster, you’re set up to hold strong and begin your participation in the insane free-for-all of armies and states that is the Reconstitution. (One wonders if the Meisarch would actually reinstate the Council after all. For an ambitious man, it’s surely tempting to bump off the Namarch and rule alone, given the Tessarch’s presumed dead, and the Iltarch, Pommarch, and Dahaunarch are the chief monarchist plotters).


End file.
